All of these fabulous new jewelry collections arrived Tuesday plus some more that I didn't have time to take photos of. Just in time for some fresh gift giving ideas. You will find these collections split between MMHG and Moxie. This jewelry is gorgeous and the price points are excellent. Fun for you or a friend. And of course we are always happy to gift bag it for you to give and go!
are so much fun! Michelle and Kris, the dynamic sisterly duo behind Kar-Fre Flowers in Sycamore. Their shop is gorgeous and it smells great too! Plus, they are a fun and friendly family owned and operated business which I love.
Here is Michelle dressed as an Oompa Loompa.
Now that is going the distance to have some fun at work. You go Michelle.
I check their fun blog, Michelle's Musings, (see the link on my sidebar) often to see what's new. I love this Sam The Snowman Bouquet they've created.
It is fresh, fragrant and long-lasting. I can't get enough of the smell of fresh evergreens. But not only does this bouquet smell good it looks great too. How cute would this be sitting atop an urn next to a front door or as a table centerpiece. Love it! If you love it too....well then be sure to visit them in person in Sycamore or go straight to their website here.
I am always honored that Michelle and Kris take time out of their busy schedules to do some of their shopping at MMHG and Moxie. I can tell that they feel as strongly as I do about shopping locally. Michelle highlighted her recent visit to downtown DeKalb here.
Happy Holidays to Michelle and Kris and their Kar-Fre team. I'm sure they are working their tails off and I hope they get some rest in January. Just enough rest to gear up for their busy Valentine season. The life of an entrepreneur can be grueling, but most of us wouldn't give it up for anything.
So a couple of weeks ago my husband and I went on one last vintage seeking road trip before the big retail holiday rush began in full force. We tooled around for the day having a grand old time looking high and low for random goodies.
We were at some small antique shop in Iowa when I found an opened red box which looked to me like it was filled with dozens of little Cupid's Arrows. So tiny. So cute. My mind immediately veered off on a tangent of imagining what someone would do with 50 plus Cupid's Arrows. Was there a missing bow somewhere? Could I use a rubberband and shoot them at people to gently sting them with the love bug? Could they be used in jewelry making? Each one was marked made in England. That made them seem more intriguing to me. I don't know why. It just did.
After going thru a list of arrow possibilities in my over-active mind I finally realized that the lid to the little red box was sitting right next to the open box. I picked it up and read it.
Duh!!!!! They were cocktail arrows. If I led a more refined and delicate life I might have come up with that answer immediately. But no. I am the type of girl who serves plates full of pigs in a blanket with mustard dipping sauce at my parties. We just eat them with our fingers. And we eat them fast. My family would end up using little arrows to stab each other's hands with in order to get to the pile of weenies faster. We're competitive like that.
I felt kind of silly standing in that shop once I realized that I couldn't even recognize a cocktail spear. But then I realized that they could still be a box full of Cupid's arrows if I wanted them to be. I did purchase them and will be offering them up for sale at MMHG today. If you need a box full of tiny arrows or plan on having a civilized adult-like party minus the pig's in a blanket .....you might want to stop in and see them.
I'm not telling most of you anything new when I say that my sister Courtney pretty much runs the show around MMHG and Moxie. She is both the energizer bunny and the glue that keeps this dog and pony show up and running. I'm the older, crazier, eccentric, impetuous sister who has my head in the clouds most days and she's the loyal little sister who never loses her cool all the while getting more done before 9 am than I could accomplish in 8 hours. I dream up things and she helps me make them happen. I'm fully convinced that if there hadn't been a Courtney from day one then there would not be any shops for me to be blogging about right now. People ask me all the time what the secret to staying in business successfully for so many years in a downtown that has been a challenge to many is and my answer has always been. "Hard work." My answer really should be "Courtney."
Eleven years ago when I decided on a whim to purchase an old building downtown DeKalb and open up a shop with no previous retail training or experience, I didn't really give much thought to all that it would entail. I just decided it was something I wanted to try so I did. I remember telling Courtney what I planned on doing and at that time she said "Can I work for you?" and I said yes. That was that. I didn't think about it and she probably didn't either. Talk about fate working out in my favor! I think she got the short end of the stick. I won the jackpot. Yea me.
I was 33 when MMHG opened. Courtney is 6 1/2 years younger. We knew nothing of payroll, taxes, liability insurance, sign permits, property taxes, scheduling, credit card fees, credit card fraud, truck deliveries, net 30s, international shipping, and so on and so on. We were green. You had one sister who had basically one talent to bring to the table (a creative mind.....if you can really call that a talent....I hope you can or I'm talentless.) and one sister who had the patience of a saint and a willingness to learn all the nasty paperworky crud that would only multiply by the hundredth degree with every year we've stayed in business. See what I mean about winning the jackpot.
Not only does Courtney keep these shops running smoothly but she, along with the talented Alison, handles all of our web orders. At this time of year that is a mighty big job. I don't know how she does all that she does. And I must say that she always does it with a smile. She's no crabby Patty that's for sure. Heck, if I put on a pair of pants and they are too tight it might set me off in a tailspin of despair for the day. But not Courtney. She is steady and practical. She helps to keep me focused and calm. One day as I was spinning emotionally out of control over something that probably didn't require me spinning in circles and hyper ventilating....she came up to me and calmly grabbed my forearms and said "Don't fret my pet." It worked. I stopped getting myself all worked up and felt instantly better. I don't know why it worked, it just did. In temperament and personality we are pretty much opposites. But at the core we are much the same. We both believe in honesty, hard work and loyalty.
A couple of days ago I saw Courtney running around getting a stack of orders ready to mail out and I asked her to smile for the camera. Of course she obliged me because she's so darned nice. I told her I was going to do a post about the web and she believed me because she's a sucker. Just kidding. She believed me because I'm the older sister and she always believes me. If she had any idea whatsoever that I was going to write about her talents she would have begged me not to. She's very humble like that.
Courtney. The little sister who could.
Growing up I think I looked forward to what was in the Christmas stocking more than what was under the tree. Something about all those little fun things inside really thrilled me. Plus our stockings usually had some sugary treats which we didn't often get so that might have had something to do with it too. Here is my list of ten great stocking stuffers you can currently find at MMHG.
Bananagrams.... the award-winning anagram game that will drive you bananas. $14.95 at MMHG or here.
Fast paced, easy to play, travels well. Fun for kids and adults!
I woke up this morning to thoughts of snow angels and snowball fights. Sledding and snowman building. All the same things I've thought about since I was a young kid and woke up to find the first big snowfall of the year. There is something magical for me about pulling back the bedrooom curtain and peeking out to see nothing but a clean blanket of fluffy white snow.
Growing up we always had a toboggan that my dad would meticulously wax the bottom of to make sure it was slick and speedy. He used to get as many of us siblings (there are 7 of us) onto that sled and send us down some pretty big hills for hours on end. We'd hollar in terror and delight all the way down. Then my dad would wrangle all of us together and put that huge toboggan on his back and somehow get us and it all the way back up the hill again to do it all over again. We usually cried uncle before he did. Good times.
So the snow...... I know it is difficult to drive in and slows life down for a while.....but I still find it one of life's beautiful gifts. I live in a very old neighborhood with ginormous trees lining both sides of the street and when it snows big it creates a winter white canopy over the streets. It can be so breath-taking if you look up at it. I think I'll walk to work today just so I can enjoy the crisp whiteness of it all before it gets all mucked up. Happy snowy tuesday to you all.
As Promised here are a few more photos of our vintage holiday goodies. We are all done decorating for the year....now if I can keep it all dust free until Christmas day when I host the family for dinner we'll be good to go!
So that's the highlights for 2009. I am hoping that 2010 will bring me the opportunity to find a few more vintage Christmas finds to add to our collection. And of course I will be sharing most of what I find with you thru the shops. I can't keep it all! For those of you who remember the post about me face planting on the sidewalk and breaking my elbow this summer....well the Santa painting in the white frame was found that same day by me after I hobbled into the sale totally in pain and not realizing I had broken something. I was determined to keep shopping after I had driven for an hour to get to the sale. I walked into the first room and there was the painting. For a moment or two I forgot all about my pain and was completely happy. That's what life as a vintage junkie is like. Really.
If you've followed this blog for any time at all, it's likely you've heard me talk about how much I adore vintage holiday decorations.....especially Christmas ones. I've been slowly building up a collection of things I love for the last 19 years. I sell more than I keep for sure, but I do add a couple of items to my own collection each year.
The favorite item I found and kept this year is a small painting of a church and winter scene done on wood. It is so sweet and signed 1973 by a Mildred Swan. I have no idea who Mildred Swan is, but I love having her folky little painting hanging on my wall.
Here a group of vintage angels perch happily on a wall molding.
The wonderful painting that is the centerpiece of this setting was done by none other than our friend and wonderful co-worker Pat Kirk. The ice-skating girl is called Mabel Snow and is based on a vintage illustration I found in one of my old magazines from the 1920's.
My decorating style is free form and I never really think it thru too much. I love, love, love multi colored glass garland and this year some of it adorns an old column in our library.
Little houses, trees, baubles and more set upon a vintage oval mirror from the 20s that my husband always refers to as the "skating rink." He becomes more quirky like me every day. That's what happens after almost twenty years of marriage!
My collection of vintage paper mache and plaster nativity figures numbers in the hundreds. It breaks my heart to see them bagged up and just sitting around at estate sales so if they are affordable I almost always take them home.
Thanks for sharing a look at some of my vintage Holiday collections. I'll post part two in the next day or so. If there is anything special you do with your Holiday decorating please feel free to share it with me in the comments section!
That was my directive to Bob as he went off to look for our Christmas tree this year. I love a tall and skinny tree.
Since I have worked in retail for the last 10 years, the tree buying and decorating has become Bob's job. He does it well! Every Thanksgiving weekend as I go off to work long "Black Friday" hours, he puts a lot of effort and energy into finding us the perfect tree. After finding the perfect tree, he spends the day dressing it up for the holidays in it's vintage ornament frock. 15 years of collecting vintage ornaments of all types gives him plenty to work with. Of course I have the perfect excuse to keep buying more because sadly several of them meet with an untimely demise each year. Accidents happen. Did I mention Bob puts all of the very fragile ornaments on the tree? Oh I did.....then I probably should mention again that accidents happen. That's ok Bob. I love you no matter how many precious, one of a kind, I doubt I'll ever find that one again, ornaments you break. Really.
So by the time I got home this past Sunday night, the sun had gone down and the tree was all lit up and waiting for me.
It's almost as pretty by daylight.
Thanks Bob. I think you truly outdid yourself this year!